Source:

Footnotes:

Two dots (..) indicate that the State has not ratified
or acceded to the Convention as of 10 Decmber 2003.

aRefers
to the year that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women was ratified. The note (a) next
to the year indicates accession to the Convention; the note (d)
indicates succession to the Convention. As of December 2003, United
States has signed but not ratified, acceded or succeeded to the
Convention.

b"Yes"
means that the country or area has, as of April 2000, provided
to the United Nations Secretariat its national action plan
or strategy for the implementation of the Beijing Platform for
Action.

Technical notes:

Table 6.B presents, for
each country, the year of ratification of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and
whether a national plan of action for the implementation of the
Beijing Platform for Action has been submitted to the United Nations
Secretariat.

Information
on the year of ratification of the Convention is provided by the
Division for the Advancement of Women of the United Nations Secretariat,
as is information on national plan of action.

The information
on the Convention provided in table 6.B is as of June December
2003. The Convention is the first international treaty embodying
the civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights of
women. It therefore covers the full range of issues related to
the role and position of women in public and private life and
establishes the obligations of States Parties to ensure the full
development and advancement of women. It should be noted that
many countries that have ratified and put in force the Convention
have entered reservations. Conversely, some countries that have
not entered reservations continue to permit practices that contravene
particular provisions of the Convention.

The column on the national
plan of action indicates whether a country has submitted a national
action plan for the implementation of the Beijing Platform for
Action to the United Nations Secretariat, as of 4 April 2000.
Governments committed themselves in the Platform for Action to
developing implementation strategies and plans of action, and
the majority of countries have provided their national action
plans or strategies to the Secretariat. Many of the plans were
prepared in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and
other relevant actors. Only a few national action plans established
comprehensive, time-bound targets and benchmarks or indicators
for monitoring, and most national action plans made no reference
to sources of financing for the actions identified.